Ronald N. Margolis, Ph.D.

Current Responsibilities & Activities

As program director of the Endocrinology and Hormone Signaling Program, I am responsible for the scientific oversight and management of approximately 100 grants relating to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily, a unique class of proteins that helps regulate an array of molecular functions, such as homeostasis, reproduction, development, and metabolism, through the interaction and control of gene expression.

Diseases affected by members of the nuclear receptor superfamily include those of the thyroid, lipid, and xenobiotic metabolism; osteoporosis; type 2 diabetes; breast and prostate cancer; and obesity. I am interested in supporting research that advances control over these major diseases through manipulation of gene expression and transcription factors using drug therapy. Some research topics covered under my portfolio include signal transduction and regulation of gene expression, structure and function of the steroid hormones, receptor structure, interaction with cytoplasmic chaperones and ligands, nuclear translocation, and mediator proteins.

I also serve as project scientist for the Nuclear Receptor Signaling Atlas (NURSA) initiative. The NURSA initiative is a web-accessible bioinformatics resource that provides current and emerging data on nuclear receptor structure, function, and role in disease that is organized into user-mineable forms.

As the NIDDK liaison to the BD2K Executive Committee I an the Co-lead for the Data Discovery Index to develop the means for finding, accessing, interoperating, and re-using biomedical big data (https://commonfund.nih.gov/bd2k/index).

I am the Co-lead for the Common Fund project to "Illuminate the Druggable Genome" designed to accrue and develop information about the unannotated genes within the druggable genome (http://commonfund.nih.gov/idg/index).